A Monthly Digest of Noteworthy Activities and Achievements

Bob Wachter reviews the progress made by our department in 2024, highlighting the collective efforts of DOM members that made it possible. Looking forward to 2025, he discusses upcoming expansions and innovative approaches poised to advance our missions further. Read more here about Bob's insights on our achievements, opportunities, and future challenges.

Honors and News

Alicia Fernandez has been appointed
to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

Victor Jimenez is the new manager of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy, and Sleep Medicine at UCSF Health.

Other Honors and News

Allison Bond is the new director of Medical Grand Rounds at the UCSF Health campus.

Karen Hauer has been selected as president-elect of the International Competency Based Medical Education Collaborative (ICBME).

Era Kryzhanovskaya received the UCSF Parnassus Integrated Student Clinical Experience (PISCES) Teaching Award.

Elise Riley received the Mary Jeanne Kreek Underserved Populations Award from the College on Problems of Drug Dependence.

ZSFG was named by The Joint Commission and Kaiser Permanente as the recipient of the 2024 Bernard J. Tyson National Award for Excellence in Pursuit of Healthcare Equity for their initiative, “Reducing racial disparities for African American patients with heart failure.”

Performance Evaluations

Faculty Reviews

Staff Evaluations

Our department requires each faculty member to have an annual meeting with their division chief to discuss performance, goals, and career planning by April 30. Learn more here.

The performance evaluation (PE) is an opportunity for a dialogue between staff members and supervisors. The PE form must be completed by March 14 via the PE Portal. Read more here.

DOM in the News  

John Balmes reported the need for more data on the health effects of pollutants produced while cooking (KQED).

Peter Chin-Hong expressed concern about avian flu jumping to mammals (CNN, NBC News) and advised wearing PPE around animals and getting the flu shot to prevent viruses from combining (Los Angeles Times, KQED). He also discussed incoming public health officials, changes in regulations, and the erosion of public trust (LAist).

Monica Gandhi underscored the importance of vaccines for those intending to get pregnant (NBC News).

Karla Kerlikowske questioned if new mammogram technology is identifying more tumors or leading to more overdiagnosis (New York Times).

Margot Kushel explained that the increase in the number of deaths from exposure to extreme temperatures is due to the growing number of older individuals within the homeless population (San Francisco Chronicle).

Pamela Ling compared vaping, a very potent delivery system for nicotine, to smoking cigarettes (KCBS).

Kin Yuen enthusiastically endorsed ending daylight savings time (NBC News).

Elizabeth Zheng linked liver disease in the Asian community to the lack of Hepatitis B vaccinations (KCBS).

Recent Grants of Note

Sulggi Lee and team: a grant of $4.2M over five years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for a project entitled, “STudy of Acute HIV for investiGating Eradication Strategies (STAGES): The role of IL-10 and IFN signaling.”

Suneil Koliwad, Feroz Papa, and Jacquelyn Maher: a grant of $2.4M over four years from The Larry L. Hillblom Foundation for a project entitled, “Targeting the unfolded protein response to halt obesity-associated diabetes.”

Jessica Briggs: a grant of $1.3M over three years from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for a malaria molecular surveillance project in Uganda entitled, “IMMRSE-U2 project.”

Recent Publications of Note

Abelman RA, Ma Y, Mehta CC... Grunfeld C... Tien PC. Switch to integrase strand transfer inhibitors during the menopausal transition is associated with accelerated body composition change in women with HIV. Clin Infect Dis. 2024 Nov 4:ciae540. >> PubMed Citation

Barbehenn A, Shi L, Shao J... Donaire S, Sheikhzadeh C... Peluso MJ... Hecht F, Pilcher C, Cohen SE... Havlir D, Gandhi M, Henrich TJ... Deeks SG, Lee SA. Rapid biphasic decay of intact and defective HIV DNA reservoir during acute treated HIV disease. Nat Commun. 2024 Nov 18;15:9966. >> PubMed Citation

Crowder R, Thangakunam B, Andama A... Phillips PPJ... Nahid P, Cattamanchi A... Diagnostic accuracy of TB screening tests in a prospective multinational cohort: Chest-X-ray with computer-aided detection, Xpert TB host response, and C-reactive protein. Clin Infect Dis. 2024 Nov 7:ciae549. >> PubMed Citation

Fahy JV, Jackson ND, Sajuthi SP... Woodruff PG, Peters MC... Type 1 immune responses related to viral infection influence corticosteroid response in asthma. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2024 Nov 27. Epub ahead of print. >> PubMed Citation

Kerlikowske K, Esserman L, Tice JA. Screening mammography for 40-year-old women-whose decision? JAMA Intern Med. 2024 Nov 1;184:1281-1282. >> PubMed Citation

Kim J, Munster PN. Estrogens and breast cancer. Ann Oncol. 2024 Nov 8;S0923-7534:04880-4. >> PubMed Citation

Lyu A, Nam SH, Humphrey RS, Horton TM, Ehrlich LIR. Cells and signals of the leukemic microenvironment that support progression of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). Exp Mol Med. 2024 Nov;56:2337-2347. >> PubMed Citation

Peluso MJ, Hanson MR, Deeks SG. Infection-associated chronic conditions: Why Long Covid is our best chance to untangle Osler's web. Sci Transl Med. 2024 Nov 13;16:eado2101. >> PubMed Citation

Polverino F, Woodruff PG. Radiomultiomics: pioneering precision medicine for severe asthma. Eur Respir J. 2024 Nov 21;64:2401639. >> PubMed Citation

Rosenthal PJ. Artemisinin partial resistance and the treatment of severe malaria. JAMA. 2025 Jan 7;333:37-38. >> PubMed Citation

Spinelli MA, Bisom-Rapp E, Heise MJ... Appa A... Sassaman K... Gandhi M. High retention and adherence with rapid long-acting injectable PrEP implementation in an urban safety-net clinic population. Clin Infect Dis. 2024 Nov 1:ciae531. >> PubMed Citation

Spottiswoode N, Minter DJ, Friedman-Moraco R. Rewriting the script. Clin Infect Dis. 2024 Nov 27:ciae589. >> PubMed Citation

Suen AO, Iyer AS, Cenzer I, Singer JP... Sudore RL... Social isolation and mortality in adults With chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. JAMA Intern Med. 2025 Jan 1;185:113-116. >> PubMed Citation

Zhang GY, Brandman D. A clinical update on MASLD. JAMA Intern Med. 2025 Jan 1;185:105-107. >> PubMed Citation

See all 229 DOM-authored publications from last month.

Featured Events

Introduction to AI Prompt Engineering
William Brown III will discuss the AI tools being used at UCSF Health and the potential pitfalls of using these tools in healthcare.
Wednesday, January 15 | 12:00 pm-1:30 pm
Click here for more information.

State of the Department
DOM Chair Bob Wachter’s annual address will be delivered in a hybrid format and recorded for later viewing.
Tuesday, March 18 | 12:00-1:00 pm
In-person at S-214 (Parnassus) or join via Zoom.

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